It is well known and successful to harvest cotton from standing rows of plants using upstanding drum type picker units with moving, rotating spindles or fingers that remove the cotton from the bolls of the plants. The cotton is then removed from the spindles using a doffer system, and the cotton is collected. Reference in this regard, Thedford et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,552 issued Aug. 13, 1991.
It is also well known to harvest cotton in a row insensitive manner by cutting entire plants and feeding them into an area of the harvester in which the bolls are removed from the plants using drum mounted rotating spindles. The drums can be vertical, as disclosed in Keck, U.S. Pat. No. 3,533,224 issued Oct. 13, 1970, wherein the cut plants are fed between the spindle drums. The drums can also be horizontal, disposed above the cut crops so as move in the direction of travel of the plants, for both picking the cotton from above and propelling the movement of the plants through the picking area. Reference in this regard, Hubbard, U.S. Pat. No. 3,757,502 issued Sep. 11, 1973. This can be disadvantageous, as the plants are not attached to the ground or otherwise fixed in position, and thus there is nothing holding the bolls to allow the cotton filaments to be pulled therefrom. Instead, the bolls are moving in the same direction as the spindles and the rotary movement of the spindles may be the only relative movement for pulling the filaments from the bolls, and this may not be adequate as the bolls, because the plants are cut from the ground, are free to rotate with the spindles. Another possible disadvantage is that the doffers and pneumatic duct system are arranged such that the doffed cotton must overcome gravity when traveling from the doffers to the duct inlet for collection, and if not collected will fall either to collect in the enclosure containing the drums or fall back into the plant flow and be lost.
Still other known cotton harvesters utilize transverse horizontal picking drums that have spindles which reach into standing plants and snag the cotton bolls to remove them from the plants. However, this requires doffing the bolls from the spindles and the additional step of removing and separating the cotton from the loose bolls.
In recent years, picking cotton from standing rows of plants in a row sensitive manner using harvesters with upstanding drums has been more prevalent, at least in the United States. However, this manner of picking has been found to have shortcomings productivity- and time-wise. A reason for this is that most efficient picking from standing plants occurs with the picker drum speeds synchronized to move at the ground speed of the machine. If it is attempted to increase picker drum speed with increased ground speed, drum life can be significantly decreased and service requirements significantly increased. Increasing drum speed also decreases efficiency, so that a lower percentage of the cotton may actually be harvested. It is still sought to increase picking speed, however, as cotton has a short harvest window in which the cotton, defoliation of the plants, and weather are optimal for harvesting. It is also desired by some to have an improved row insensitive cotton harvesting capability.
Thus, what is sought is a manner of increasing cotton picking speed to enable taking advantage of optimal conditions, that overcomes one or more of the shortcomings and limitations set forth above, and has an improved row insensitive harvesting capability.